Trip Report Red Sea Serpent Grand Egypt

[reefseeker2]

I appreciate your review. It adds perspective. When it comes to liveaboards, you get what you pay for, I think.

When booking I was only looking at the most expensive trips. If I could have found a more expensive one I would have booked that. Oh well. Sticking to what I know here out.

 

[reefseeker2]

I was on that boat in August. You're right about the fish at dinner, cardboard is a good description. I avoided it after my first meal. Otherwise, I thought the food was acceptable. Luckily, I don't drink coffee.

Camera facilities were OK in my opinion, but there weren't many people with big cameras on my trip.

Smoking was a popular activity. I don't particularly like it, but it didn't bother me that much.

Internet connection was appalling. I didn't expect to have internet access on a Red Sea liveaboard, so it really isn't the end of the world, but I think it's somewhat disingenuous to advertise that internet is available on the boat.

The diving was classic Egyptian Red Sea. It is what it is, for many people, it is a dream destination. However, I can see that if you've dived other parts of the world with higher biomass and diversity then it might be something of a disappointment.

Like you, my primary disappointment was the size of the dive groups. On all the other high end liveaboards I've done in the Red Sea, the diving is done in buddy pairs rather than in a group. In my group of ten, we had over 10000 dives between us! We really didn't need to have our hands held.

Overall, I thought the trip was OK, but not worth it for me. It didn't compare too unfavourably to other trips that I've done in the region, but the way they organised the diving was a major bugbear.

Another downer was that there was some issue with me pre-paying for an extra cylinder. One of the guides said they hadn't received the money from the travel agent and was quite in my face about it. It really wasn't my problem, but I could see the situation getting unpleasant, so spent a little time hurriedly sending emails back and forth to the UK to get it sorted. Again, not the end of the wold, but I would have preferred to spend the last night of my trip chilling out. On reflection, it may have been a ruse to extort money out of me.

It is a shame. I've always held the Sea Serpent fleet in high regard, but never travelled with them before for various reasons. My opinion has changed for the worse.

Thank you very much for a civil response to what I wrote. I dove alone for 10 years when I was young. But as I get older and in a new place it's nice to have someone who has been there before especially when there is a strong current. One time they dropped us off in a bad spot but the guide was in the right spot with half the divers. We are experienced so knew what to do, people that were not did a small panic. So sometimes it matters. Actually I think this is my first trip report ever. I think because I was bored and no Internet I started keeping notes LOL . Something to do. And the guide did get really rude about air signals. All he wanted to know is PAR and later just we sort of agreed to 750 PSI or 1500 for half tank, I could not get him to understand 1000 and not ready to return. Later I just always told him 1/2 tank or he would start making all 10 of us go up. Never in my life did I have this issue. Later I saw some lady almost crying because of similar issue - she was just upset that he treated her like a baby and talking down to her. I felt bad for her, just told her forget it. I just think he does not understand you and he is the one frustrated.

 

[MB NZ]

Yes, Grand Sea Serpent is in the upper end of the price range. The Aggressor boats cost considerably more and I know the brand has a following in North America, however, reports from the Aggressor boats in the Red Sea weren't too good when I looked in to it.

I would consider the Blue O Two boats. I've done around 8 trips with them and was never disappointed. However, I believe the company has changed ownership since I was last with them and departure locations didn't line up for me.

 

[MB NZ]

Thank you very much for a civil response to what I wrote. I dove alone for 10 years when I was young. But as I get older and in a new place it's nice to have someone who has been there before especially when there is a strong current. One time they dropped us off in a bad spot but the guide was in the right spot with half the divers. We are experienced so knew what to do, people that were not did a small panic. So sometimes it matters. Actually I think this is my first trip report ever. I think because I was bored and no Internet I started keeping notes LOL . Something to do. And the guide did get really rude about air signals. All he wanted to know is PAR and later just we sort of agreed to 750 PSI or 1500 for half tank, I could not get him to understand 1000 and not ready to return. Later I just always told him 1/2 tank or he would start making all 10 of us go up. Never in my life did I have this issue. Later I saw some lady almost crying because of similar issue - she was just upset that he treated her like a baby and talking down to her. I felt bad for her, just told her forget it. I just think he does not understand you and he is the one frustrated.

Oh yes, I got told off too

The guides really messed up planning our first dive at the Brothers. To cut a long story short, I found myself separated from my group on entering the water from a Zodiac due to another diver having an equipment problem. I hung out at 6 metres within sight of another dive group, waiting for my group to get in the water. Bearing in mind that we had specifically been told to do negative entries and stay off the surface, I thought this was the most sensible and safest thing to do. I also had a redundant gas source. I believe the head guide gave my guide a right bollocking about "solo diving" and he passed some hate on to me. I was kind of over it at that point.

Having worked as a dive guide in a former life and done a lot of diving around the world, it's my opinion that the guides most insecure about their abilities get most stressed out with customers.

 

[also_anon_dc]

Yes, Grand Sea Serpent is in the upper end of the price range. The Aggressor boats cost considerably more and I know the brand has a following in North America, however, reports from the Aggressor boats in the Red Sea weren't too good when I looked in to it.

I would consider the Blue O Two boats. I've done around 8 trips with them and was never disappointed. However, I believe the company has changed ownership since I was last with them and departure locations didn't line up for me.

I’ve done two Blue O Two liveaboards in the Red Sea in 2021 and earlier this year. The food is good, guides are great but they also have large groups (2 dive guides for 20+ passengers) and definitely are not a luxury experience. Many of OPs complaints will still exist like no hairdryers, no internet and no new towels.

 

[MB NZ]

I’ve done two Blue O Two liveaboards in the Red Sea in 2021 and earlier this year. The food is good, guides are great but they also have large groups (2 dive guides for 20+ passengers) and definitely are not a luxury experience. Many of OPs complaints will still exist like no hairdryers, no internet and no new towels.

Did they allow diving in buddy pairs, i.e. unguided diving?

 

[berndo]

The food is good, guides are great but they also have large groups (2 dive guides for 20+ passengers) and definitely are not a luxury experience.

That an american thing. The boats in Egypt mostly cater to what Europeans want as most of their customers are European. They usually don't want to be guided or want any hand holding. It's not muck diving and navigation is super simple so I don't see why you would wanna follow a tour guide and not just dive with a buddy. Many boats only have one guide to do to the briefing and that's it. When clubs or shops book a boat they often tell the guide he can tag along if he wants to or stay on the boat.

IMHO you can't just fly to some place on the planet and expect everything to be the way mericans prefere it. Also, it's a good idea to do research before a trip and not just book a random boat/tour/destination.

 

[also_anon_dc]

Did they allow diving in buddy pairs, i.e. unguided diving?

Sort of. You have to enter the water at the same time as your group but once you're in you can go off on your own, you don't have to follow the guide if you don't want to. Night dives were typically unguided unless the divers specifically asked for a guide to be in the water. All dives had a max time limit.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Yes, Grand Sea Serpent is in the upper end of the price range. The Aggressor boats cost considerably more and I know the brand has a following in North America, however, reports from the Aggressor boats in the Red Sea weren't too good when I looked in to it.

I have only done one Red Sea liveaboard trip, and that was on the Aggressor (which was destroyed by fire on a later trip). The Aggressor brand indeed caters to American sensibilities and does not try to compete on price with boats that are more popular with Europeans. I don't recall any smokers, for instance. The food was very good, likely prepared by a cook who had high-end hotel experience, as the food was often served with (needlessly, in my opinion) fancy presentations. I'll take simple food, cooked properly (no inedibly overcooked meat/fish, please) anyday over fancier fare. I've never had bad food in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, etc. I'm ambivalent about the Aggressor brand at this time, but that's beside the point here.

As I said, I have little personal experience with Red Sea boats, but it's my understanding that different boats/brands have different followings--nationalities, that is. Some boats get mostly UK divers, others mostly German divers, etc. If one wants a boat that is more in line with American tastes, one should look for a boat that gets a heavily American clientele. Note in the trip reports/reviews who the authors are. I do that even for non-dive trips.

 

[MB NZ]

I really don't think American divers have vastly different requirements to divers from the rest of the world. Sure, I can think of some examples having been on liveaboards with divers from the US in Australia and the Solomon Islands, but they would be gross generalisations!